Homer, had he lived to become a Letterman fan, might have found that the show violated the principle of the guest-host relationship. It began with Mr. Letterman, in his monologue, making some of his trademark McCain-looks-like-a-cranky-old-man jokes.

“He looks like the guy at the hardware store who makes the keys,’’ he said, according to a transcript provided by CBS. “He looks like the guy who can’t stop talking about how well his tomatoes are doing. He looks like the guy who goes into town for turpentine. He looks like the guy who always has wiry hair growing out of new places. He looks like the guy who points out the spots they missed at the car wash.’’

Then Mr. McCain unleashed a slew of his own you-look-like-a-guy jokes at Mr. Letterman.
“Well, you look like a guy whose laptop would be seized by the authorities,’’ Mr. McCain said. “You look like a guy caught smuggling reptiles in his pants.’’

Mr. Letterman interjected: “Don’t knock it if you haven’t tried it.’’

Mr. McCain continued: “You look like the guy who the neighbors later say, ‘He mostly kept to himself.’ You look like the night manager of a creepy motel.’’

“Well, that’s what I need,’’ Mr. Letterman said.

Then Mr. McCain delivers the coup de grace: “And you look like the guy who enjoys getting into a hot tub and watching his swim trunks inflate.’’

On Tuesday, everybody was a comedian. The Democratic National Committee came up with its own April Fool’s day list of the “Top 10 Reasons to Vote for John McCain.” They included “Early Bird Specials at the White House cafeteria,” “Finally, the President of the National Press Club will be made a member of the cabinet,’’ “Best Karaoke Song Ever: ‘Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran’ ” and the number one reason: “The last seven years have been so great, let’s have four more!”

The fact that McCain polls well against Democrats today means little right now since he has had the spotlight all to himself. That is the problem with the Democrats dragging out this nomination. Obama is correct in aiming his criticisms agains McCain rather than Clinton, while Clinton continues her scorched earth tactics against Obama. Among the trio, Clinton is the clear loser.

If this interchange is presidential, and McCain would be the winner in the election, we will be laughed at even more than we are now–and our wealth and influence will sink even faster than it did in the last seven years. I’ll bet you that our World War II enemies are laughing at us–wherever they are–because WE are doing ourselves more damage than they ever could!

It is good that they both could have a good laugh. But four more years of Bush is not funny. As to the polls, interestingly enough none of my Republican friends will vote for McCain. They all would have voted for Romney.

I suppose it’s ok to practice making jokes when the average citizen is as anxious and depressed as he and/or she has been in years. Unfortunately, when we’re looking for solutions, light-hearted Don Rickles type joking, lacking civility, are not encouraging or paricularly funny when they are made to merely offend a candidate for the highest office in the land.

“Ace” McCain, as his Navy buddies called him, for destroying 5 aircraft – our own – should be taking on Clinton and Obama, rather than Letterman. His action of acting overjoyed and throwing his arms around the former commander of the “Hanoi Hilton” where American POWs were tortured, was distasteful and disquieting. Something is very wrong here. I haven’t heard any serious proposals from McCain about dealing with the weakening dollar, the $ 9 trillion national debt, the $ 53 trillion in unfunded entitlement obligations, or anything else of substance.

Is this what the campaign has come down to? A scripted video-op? Americans are in dire need of ideas and vision – not platitudes substituting for “ideals” and visions of images in the rear view mirror. John was the patriot that we needed before he was slandered and defamed by the Roving hitman in 2000. Unfortunately, the ship has sailed and we need someone who can lead all Americans into world that has been left by mis-administration.

President Obama drew criticism on Thursday when he said, “we don’t have a strategy yet,” for military action against ISIS in Syria. Lawmakers will weigh in on Mr. Obama’s comments on the Sunday shows.Read more…